Phil Anselmo Talks Boxing With Rapper 50 Cent

As one of metal's most aggressive vocalists in history, it's no surprise to learn that Pantera / Down vocalist Philip Anselmo is a huge fan of boxing. Surely tracks such as 'F---ing Hostile' and 'Mouth for War' have inspired many fists to bust through walls, along with faces, so Boxing Insider welcomed Anselmo for an exclusive interview, but here's the catch: Philip Anselmo was brought in to conduct an interview with yet another musician and boxing fan … rapper 50 Cent.

In an hilarious piece of truth, Anselmo admitted to have no effing clue who 50 Cent was, but penned kind words about the rapper. "Call me morbid, call me pale, call me a victim of pugilistic dementia, but I must say, speaking to this man was an interesting experience," writes Anselmo. "I was beyond impressed with his smarts, his sense of humor, his accomplishments and his future plans."

Although not one to follow the hip-hop game, Anselmo's interviewing skills were spot-on:

Anselmo: "Do you see any parallels between music and boxing on a business level?"

50 Cent: “Well yes. In the past the majority of the record companies were run continuously. Artists would come up and be really exciting at certain points and eventually go through that cycle of entertainment. Then, they (record companies) built entertainment to destroy them (the artists) for the sake of entertainment. And as you go up, and keep going up in an artist’s career, there’s no place to go but down shortly thereafter.

And if you look at some of those older artists that are so talented, then ask yourself, ‘What happened to them?’ or ‘Why aren’t they still recording?’ or ‘Why aren’t they still exciting to the general public?’, it’s because the public follows that system. The shadow of doubt is cast over artists and music culture at different points. You have to be independent in order to work things out through that shadow. Because it’s this system that decides who is relevant, and companies have to see if they’re gonna continue to market and promote the actual projects anymore.

And it’s the same with fighters; they’ll grow up and they’ll see some excitement around them and they’re having their moment, but in boxing if there is no opponent, the general public will make one for you. If a guy happens to be a shining star in his weight class, there’ll be another fighter that may have a great performance in the same division, so that guy will be perceived as the guy that can beat the shining star. And the public and press will make the challenger as relevant as you, because the star fighter needs to fight!

And like music culture is to boxing, you’re only as exciting as your last hit record, or in boxing/music terms, your last performance or fight."

Check out Philip Anselmo's full interview with 50 Cent at Boxing Insider.